Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in youth (e.g., less than 35 years of age) is an unfortunately common occurrence. Those participating in regular vigorous exercise are generally at higher risk for SCA. Additionally, risk of SCA has been shown to be stratified by gender (e.g., men have about 2× higher risk than women), ethnicity (e.g., African-Americans have about 2× higher risk than an overall population risk), and by sport (e.g., men's basketball athletes have about 4× higher risk than athletes in other sports). In a particular example, a men's collegiate basketball player (e.g., playing 4 years) has about a 1/800 chance of an SCA occurrence.
Recent studies have shown that for every 1,000 athletes screened by routine ECG, about 20-30 athletes have abnormal ECG's. Statistically, of the 20-30 abnormal ECG results, about 2-3 individual athletes will be found to have life-threatening conditions that need medical attention and/or intervention. Although many of these abnormalities will not result in sudden death, most of these conditions will be important in health management over the course of the individual athlete's life. Cardiovascular death is still the leading cause of death and disability in the United States and early detection of abnormal conditions is advantageous for treatment, management and SCA avoidance.